A MAN with a "relatively substantial" criminal history has avoided prison time for the role he played in widespread violence after a Hereford FC match.

Billy Arran Jenson, 27, had punched a man and confronted police after Hereford FC's match versus Stockport County in 2019.

Prosecuting barrister Graham Russell told Worcester Crown Court on Monday there "seemed no reason" for Jenson's attack on the unidentified man, which was caught on camera.

As police tried to keep the two sets of fans apart on the City Link Road after the match on April 6, Jenson, of Woodward Avenue in Hereford, was verbally abusive to an officer.

Michael Aspinall, for Jenson, said a recent 16-week prison sentence for an unrelated offence had "given him the impetus to turn his life around", but said his behaviour was "shocking".

Mr Aspinall added Jenson, who wasn't a supporter of either club but was at the game, had been drinking.

When rocks were throw he "lashed out in a ridiculously stupid manner".

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The court also heard how Guy Nathan Cooke, 19, was abusive to a security guard when he was told to get down from a wall amid celebrations after Hereford scored.

Mr Russell added Cooke, of Kingsway in Hereford, was filmed picking up a rock after the match and throwing it across the road towards Stockport coaches, one of which had a window broken during the violence.

Mr Russell said that there had also been a flare-up of violence before the match in Commercial Road, but neither men were involved.

Emily Heggadon, for Cooke, said the conviction meant he lost his job at Hereford's Brookfield School. She added he had matured since, and was aged 17 at the time of the offences. He also had a good reference from Hereford FC.

Judge James Burbidge QC gave both credit for early guilty pleas and handed "lightly convicted" Cooke an 18-month community order with 100 hours unpaid work, and told him to pay £200 costs and a victim surcharge fee for one count of violent disorder and one of affray.

For one count of violent disorder, Jensen was "perilously close" to a custodial sentence, but the judge gave him a three-year community order as he had already served a prison sentence this year.

He was also told to do 100 hours unpaid work, pay a victim surcharge fee and was made subject of a football banning order for five years.